Agency link-up creates new groupage service on Gauteng-Botswana route

This month sees the launch of a new joint venture groupage service on the Gauteng- Botswana route following a link-up between Express Cargo and Pelican Moving Company. A Swaziland company with an office in Johannesburg to handle goods bound for Botswana from Gauteng, Express Cargo will have Pelican as its on-the-ground agent to serve all areas of that country. “Botswana is a very large place. We can now deliver to any spot, no matter how remote. It is a great service, but to do it we had to rethink what we were doing in Botswana,” said Mark Svenningsen, managing director of Express Cargo. Feeling that standards were not up to snuff on its Jo’burg to Botswana route, the firm scrutinised operations with an eye on improving service delivery. The foremost need was for a local partner with a countrywide delivery network already in place. “We did an analysis of service providers, and we learned that Pelican specialises in the movement of household personal effects throughout Botswana. When you handle personal effects it’s very much a customer service matter, very personal. It’s not like delivering 30 tonnes of cement,” said Svenningsen. Pelican does not do overborder work, so there was no conflict with Express Cargo, but the company does have extensive contacts for local distribution. “Hotel chains, supermarket chains, they deliver to them all, in every little town. This has given them an excellent delivery infrastructure in Botswana. We piggyback on that, so for consolidations from South Africa we now have access to their delivery infrastructure because our partners have offices in Gaborone, Francistown, Kasane and Selebe Phikwe,” Svenningsen said.